At the India Food Forum 2025, Rohit Kapoor, CEO – Food Marketplace, Swiggy, delivered a keynote that was anything but predictable. Instead of the standard decks on AI, cloud kitchens, or “biryani vs pizza” consumption trivia, Kapoor took the audience into the engine room of India’s fast-evolving food ecosystem—where consumer behaviour, cultural shifts, digital influence, and operational innovation collide to shape the next wave of growth.
“We are called a tech company, but at the heart of it, we are a consumer company,” he said, opening a talk that offered a panoramic view of what India is eating, when it is eating, and why platforms must evolve faster than ever to stay relevant.
Fresh off a learning trip to Shanghai—where food delivery operates at 50x India’s scale—Kapoor arrived with a simple reminder: humility is a strategic advantage. “Whenever we start thinking we have become a large company, we want to become a very small company in mindset,” he said.
What followed was a sharp decoding of six fundamental shifts shaping India’s food and Q-commerce landscape today.
1. India is Digitally Equal—but Financially Unequal: The first—and perhaps most powerful—trend Kapoor highlighted is the collapse of geographical boundaries in how India consumes food content, discovers brands, and forms preferences.
“Even in the last town, the person watching the Instagram reel is watching the same reel as somebody in South Bombay,” he said. Digital exposure is uniform; purchasing power is not. As a result, aspiration is widespread, even if conversion depends on wallet and cultural fit.
This changes how brands scale. A decade ago, national expansion needed expensive city launches, local media, and physical presence. Today, digital content travels to 200 towns without a single hoarding. That fundamentally democratises access—and competition.
For restaurants and food brands, the implication is clear: Marketing is no longer the bottleneck. Understanding local affordability and cultural resonance is.
2. India’s Food Curiosity Has Exploded—Across Every Segment: Kapoor dismantled the outdated binary of “metro food vs small-town food.” The truth, he said, is far more exciting—and far more chaotic.
Five years ago, Japanese cuisine was considered new. Today, India has Peruvian restaurants in Bengaluru and Ethiopian menus in Mumbai. At the same time, in tier-3 Bihar towns, the opening of a Domino’s or McDonald’s remains a culturally defining moment.
Two Indias are growing simultaneously: India of global experimentation—where consumers have moved beyond Japanese into niche world cuisines. India of first-time access—where QSRs are aspirational social spaces.
But Kapoor noted a unifying force shaping both: “Thanks to the Instagram effect, India is becoming far more united in its food choices than we think it is.” He illustrated this with a stunning example: Modak, once hyper-regional, now sells in Calcutta during Ganpati because reels drive curiosity across borders. Similarly, Onam Sadhya now finds takers in Gurugram. Even niche regional cuisines—Pahari, Bihari, Himachali—are seeing 2x growth from a small base.
The message is unmistakable: The market is only regional in the imagination of the brand, not in the behaviour of the consumer.
3. Health Food: Big Hype, Bigger Reality Check: Kapoor’s sharpest social commentary came when decoding India’s relationship with health food. “India talks about health food on Instagram and chole bhature on WhatsApp.” Health trends spike dramatically every second January, fuelled by New Year resolutions and gym memberships. But by the 17th or 22nd, both trails off—predictably enough for Swiggy to model it into its systems.
Yet within this volatility, two real, durable trends are rising: Protein – “Protein is flying… it has gone from niche to mass almost bordering hysteria.” Low or no added sugar – a steady shift driven by awareness and influence. But Kapoor issued a clear warning: “India will not consume food which is not tasty.” The future belongs to brands that crack nutrition + taste, not nutrition alone.
4. Late-Night India is a Massive, Underestimated Opportunity: One of the most striking insights came from Kapoor’s 5 a.m. discovery. As an early riser, he wondered why breakfast options weren’t live. His team showed him the data. What were Indians ordering at 5 a.m.? Chole bhature. Pizza. Burgers.
This wasn’t breakfast. It was India going to bed—teenagers, night owls, Gen Z, workers on night shifts—forming a huge, underserved demand cycle. “India is doing business when we sleep,” Kapoor observed. Platforms that serve this demand will unlock a massive new growth frontier. Late-night is no longer fringe. It is becoming mainstream consumption behaviour, with implications for dark kitchens, staffing, inventory, and Q-commerce positioning.
5. Q-Commerce Economics – The Power of Delivery Efficiency: Kapoor saved his most actionable operational insight for the end. India is still grappling with how to give a delivery partner two orders together. In China, riders deliver 8–10 orders at once, thanks to ultra-robust packaging, route design, and density.
The consequences are dramatic: Rider earnings are 5x higher. Delivery costs have fallen 50%. Market size has expanded 100%. Order frequency has surged. “If delivery costs go down, the market will explode 2x—simple maths.”
Kapoor’s point was clear: India’s Q-commerce transformation hinges not on discounts or tech alone, but on solving packaging, batching, and density at scale.
6. The Consumer Will Not Shortchange Us—Unless We Fail Them: Kapoor ended with optimism grounded in responsibility. “We are blessed to be in a point where the country will explode… food takes off when GDP per capita takes off.” But he cautioned that the onus is on brands and platforms. “We will not be shortchanged by our consumers. If we don’t act properly, we may shortchange our consumers.”
Consumers today are waiting—demand is accelerated, digital exposure is uniform, and curiosity is exploding. It is now up to platforms, restaurants, suppliers, and partners to show up consistently with: Great products; Great prices; Great experiences. That, he concluded, is the real playbook from platform to plate.
